Answer

Impacts of Project Management Methodologies on IT Projects by Middle East Government Entities

Table of Contents

1     INTRODUCTION.. 3

2     RESEARCH PROBLEM, QUESTIONS, OBJECTIVES. 5

2.1      Introduction. 5

2.2      Research Problem.. 6

2.3      Research Questions. 9

2.4      Research Objectives. 9

2.5      Conclusion. 9

3     LITERATURE REVIEW… 10

3.1      Introduction. 10

3.2      Contents of the SLR. 10

3.3      Findings. 14

3.4      PM Success Factors and Criteria. 15

3.5      Conclusion. 17

4     CONCLUSION.. 18

Bibliography. 20

Impacts of Project Management Methodologies on IT Projects by Middle East Government Entities

INTRODUCTION

Over the last decades, project management has gained popularity as an indispensable management tool and concept employed by organizations to realize both business objectives and economic development of countries, especially developing ones. Several programs in various countries, like real estate development, product development, event planning, and infrastructure development, particularly those linked to international aids require robust project management techniques for success to be realized. Project management, according to the Project Management Institute (PMI) (2017), refers to the employment of pertinent techniques, tools, and skills, to project undertakings  with the goal of meeting project goals, and observance of project management methodologies (PMMs) minimizes risks, cuts costs, and betters a project’s success rate (Patanakul et al., 2016). PM is, therefore, a discipline of organizing, planning, staffing, managing, and coordinating resources to result in successful completion of a particular project’s goals and objectives (Blixt & Kirytopoulos, 2017). Essentially, different PMMs are employed by various companies and organizations to augment the effectiveness and efficiency of their projects. Nonetheless, according to a study that was conducted by Zwikael and Meredith (2018), it was noted that about 47.8% of project managers often do not realize what they anticipate from employing project methodologies. Contrarily, Musau and Kirui (2018) established that PMMs contribute about 22.4% to a project’s success.

According to Joslin and Müller (2016), the employment of PMMs has become common increasingly. These include the agile methodologies, like Kanban, Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM), Scrum, extreme programming, as well as traditional alternatives, like PRINCE 2 and Project Management Professional (PMP), among others. Several reasons have been associated with the increase in the employment of PMMs. PMMS helps in standardizing, organizing, and structuring work techniques, which cumulatively help in focusing all projects in a similar way and eventually resulting in constant improvement process. Similarly, PMMs is employed to obtain some benefits, like organizing project schedules, providing equipment and tools for estimating costs and times rightly, assisting in minimizing and managing project risks, bettering the cost-best association of resources, and developing project team members’ skills (Winch & Cha, 2020). With regard to resources, PMMs help shorten a team’s learning curve.

Owing to the relevance and significance of PMMs in current projects, organizations and governments are converting the increasing technological and business opportunities into projects with the objective of growing and achieving their strategic objectives and goals. Project success, according to Müller et al. (2019), is the ultimate goal of all stakeholders and organizations thus, realizing project success is fast becoming an obsession of each and every organization. Governments are also not left behind. The stress on performance betterment in governments continues to rise steadily, backed up by mandates that are imposed by public pressure and government laws (Lacruz et al., 2019).  Management of government programs, projects, and portfolios – along with the associated expenditures of finances – are visible, major areas of concern (Lappi & Aaltonen, 2017). Notwithstanding an increasing understanding of project success determinants, rising maturity, along with a flow of successful projects and programs, project failures remain at an alarming rate and unless PMMs are properly chosen and applied, the failure rates are likely to continue shocking. Among the challenges characteristic of project failures are schedule delays and cost overruns. Since proper PM contributes to projects’ success, this study aims at discussing the impact of PMMs on information technology (IT) projects in government entities. As there are little research regarding project success in the IT industry, this research aims at contributing to the literature of PMMs and project success in the IT industry, particularly with regard to IT projects by government entities. The study will equally better the understanding of the effects of PMMs on projects’ success. The study will also offer intuitions to decision makers, project stakeholders and project managers into which methodologies are extra effective realizing projects’ success.

RESEARCH PROBLEM, QUESTIONS, OBJECTIVES

Introduction

Presently, more than ever before, projects run by governments at all levels are under intense scrutiny. At the same time, openness and transparency are requiring more documentation, whereas demands for efficacy continue growing by the day. All these are happening while budgets are continuing to be tighter, resources getting scarcer, and more government employees retiring. Today’s information technology public industry development environment is unbelievably different from a decade ago.  Organizations have the responsibility of balancing high velocity software creation in a globe characterized by increasing compliance, application complexity, and security threats (Radujković & Sjekavica, 2017). According to Radujković and Sjekavica (2017), there is a set of knowhow changes that are making software more central, strategic, and important that times before, with the most crucial knowhow change being the emergence of mobile computing. The implication is that organizations (government or non-government) must take into consideration the significance of software since organizations have to deliver quickly on projects, especially IT ones, without compromising compliance, security, or capabilities when under immense pressure from stakeholders to employ modern topologies, methodologies, and technologies without increasing expense, complexity, or risk (Sunder, 2016). To actualize this, organizations must move towards extra contemporary practices, like integration and automation of their projects.

Research Problem

The PM discipline has steadily been on the rise within the public sector for about five decades past. Initially isolated deep in missile defense plans, such as the U.S. Minuteman program, PM has significantly evolved into a well-developed instrument across military and civilian agencies across the globe. Currently, PM is under great strain within the public sector, with worldwide economic conditions leading to unprecedented cuts in all manner of projects – from big constructions to IT projects to human services. Briefly put, this study will explore why projects must produce value within short order and why training budgets are cut or stagnant completely in certain struggling nations. This paper will discuss and explore ways government entities are employing PMMs across their layers to deliver and streamline IT projects in challenging and tough economic periods. Governments, according to Abdulla and Al-Hashimi, 2019), are interconnected via funding streams, statute, regulations, and data sharing, programs and infrastructure. Thus, success in most government projects relies upon the concerted efforts of organizations that are external to the entity itself.

Additionally, the study will explore why governments are integrating across provincial/state, local, and national jurisdictions so that they can streamline their services and discard redundancies. For instance, in the case of the U.S., the federal government offers much financing to local and state governments for project associated work (Jovanovic & Beric, 2018). Currently, when citizens have great and enhanced access to almost to as many information regarding programs and projects by governments just like the people managing the same, governments have the obligation of working smart and hard to make sure that investments in projects are nearly perfect, if not perfectly, streamlined. 

Alongside the value of completing a project on budget and on time, this study will discuss the additional value that projects bring with them extra to the public sector in three specific ways. First, it will study how projects serve as change levers in characteristically change-averse companies or organizations (Saltz et al., 2017). Second, it will also study why projects encourage innovation on governments better relative to any other kind of work management (Blixt & Kirytopoulos, 2017). Lastly, it will explain why PM discipline increases the planning and execution processes’ flexibility (Misopoulos et al., 2018). To make sure that stakeholders comprehend the worth that PM brings to the government or organization, managers, project sponsors, along with team members should demonstrate that worth.

Additionally, this study will explain why project failures are fast becoming generally accepted and expected. Regarding this, the study will explain why program and project failures have the effect of depriving the public and funding organization from the anticipated paybacks of the programs/projects selected for using organizational strategy (Müller et al., 2019), as well diverting funds and resources from what may have been extra promising initiatives. Ultimately, this weakens the society and government’s competitive position, security, and wellbeing (Winch & Cha, 2020). It is against this backdrop that this paper aims at discussing the impact of PMMs on IT projects in government entities.

Table 1. The 5Why’s table

Research Questions

The main research question for this study will be: What is the impact of PMMs on IT projects in government entities? Other questions that will be answered through this study include:

1. Why is there an increase in PMMs deployed in the Government sector IT projects?
2. How do PMMs aid in the success of IT projects in the Government?

• How do the various PMMs employed in IT projects impact the projects’ success?

Research Objectives

This study’s main objective will be to determine the impact of PMMs on IT projects in government entities. The minor objectives will include:

1. To explain why there is an increase in PMMs deployed in the Government sector IT projects
2. To explain how PMMs aid in the success of IT projects in the Government
3. To discuss how the various PMMs employed in IT projects impact the projects’ success

Conclusion

The aim of this chapter was to discuss the study’s research problem as well as state its research questions and objectives. From the foregoing, PM and PMMs are very instrumental to the success of any project. The choice of a given PMM should be done carefully depending on the prevailing industry since studies have shown that each of the PMMs are employable in various situations and not all situations. Moreover, governments need to do what they can to avert the pressure that comes from stakeholders who often demand for the employment of the best PMMs to realize the objective of a given project. With increasing technological advancements and the amount of information accessible by the public, governments should ensure that security threats are minimized at best, no compromises of compliance characterize, and reduced application complexity in the IT projects that they run.  The next chapter is the literature review section before giving conclusion about the research proposal.  

LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

To achieve this paper’s objective, a systematic literature review (SLR) of past papers on project management methodologies in the context of IT government organizations was carried out via a comprehensive search of published papers.  An SLR was used because it identifies, selects, and analytically appraises research with the goal of answering a vividly formulated question (Ika, 2012). It is also a transparent, comprehensive research that is carried out over grey literature and multiple databases that can be reproduced and replicated by other researchers (Fallahnejad, 2013). Aziz and Abdel-Hakam (2016) add that SLR has a high evidence level, implying that a well-executed SLR is regarded as a feasible solution in answering a study’s subject matter.  Špundak (2014) reasons that by employing systematic and explicit methods when reviewing potential articles as well as all available evidence, SLR has the ability of minimizing bias, thus offering reliable findings from which inferences can be drawn and policies and decisions made. 

Contents of the SLR

The SLR was limited to articles that were published within the last ten years. In choosing the suitable research study to consider in this review, the fundamental inclusion search criteria were:

1. The study ought to address PMMs within a public sector atmosphere and ought to be based upon identification of factors that role play in determining how project objectives are realized and/or challenges of attaining project goals in government projects, especially IT projects.
2. Fundamental source of materials for the review was online scholarly databases, that is, scholarly peer reviewed articles.

Based upon the above primary research study inclusion criteria, the online databases that were combed for the relevant papers/publications were Google Scholar, Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, Emerald, PumMed, PumMed Central, EBSCOhost, Business Source Complete, and Taylor Francis Online database. The choosing of these online databases was informed by the fact that the same contain reputable project management journals (Marcelino-Sádaba et al., 2014). The use of reputable journals in this study increased the likelihood that the applied methodologies were suitable for each distinct kind of study (perspective article, research article, and literature review).

 The analysis of the past papers comprised of interpretative and chronological approach to represent data. Notwithstanding the fact that a systematic review is usually offered as a mathematical blend of the findings of various studies, Eweje et al. (2012) explain that it can as well be employed in drawing contrast from an assortment of studies and synthesis is achievable via interpretive means. According to McHugh and Hogan (2011), this review process provides a detailed summary of a subject matter and includes a degree of thematic assessment as well as conceptual innovation. 

Various keywords were employed either individually or in combined forms. The key words included project management, project management methodologies, IT projects, and success criteria of project management. The potential papers’ titles and abstracts were reviewed to determine the papers’ eligibility for inclusion before the same were downloaded. The references of articles that were retrieved were checked for any further pertinent citations. Articles that were found to be associated with PM and PMMs were gathered first and consequently those associated with projects in government entities were filtered using key phrases like public sector projects, project management, public projects, government projects, and information technology or IT projects within the potential articles’ keywords, abstract, and article title. Nonetheless, articles that used other terminologies linked to public projects, like project governance and complex/mega projects were reviewed before their inclusion if their focus was upon PMMs in IT government projects. Publications or articles that analyzed success in particular sectors (like engineering, banking, healthcare, education, and tourism) or within specific contexts (like outsourcing services, supply chain management) were excluded, and the research for proof was intensified with regard to PMMs.  Duplicate articles or records of the same document(s) were eliminated. Using the afore-described inclusion and exclusion criteria, the researcher registered 43 eligible papers, comprising of 35 generalistic ones that aimed at identifying contemporary success factors and criteria in PM. See the bibliography for the articles that were chosen for this study.

Fig. 1. Systematic literature review process

As depicted in figure 1, during the identification stage, articles’ keywords and titles were evaluated to help identify the articles that met the preset criteria. Articles that were clearly out of scope were eliminated, leaving the 201 sample that was moved to the eligibility assessment.  Further validation process continued, with a total of 168 articles being left out for three main reasons: (i) 76 focused on areas other than PM in government IT projects; 53 did not address PM success factors and criteria; and 39 tackled PM success in areas other than IT. At the end of the second stage (Eligibility stage), 33 articles were found to be contained within the inclusion criteria, and thus within the scope of this study. Of the 33 articles, 11 were associated with PM success factors and criteria, 10 associated with PM success criteria, and 12 PM success factors. With the selected articles being relevant to the subject of study, this study’s findings would have high likelihood of being reliable, reproducible, and valid.

The next section gives a description of the findings of the review by providing a critical assessment of the PM success scenarios and the implications associated with project success or PM success in PM literature. A description of each success factor and criterion is also provided.

Findings

To extract features of studies regarding PMMs in IT projects by Middle East government entities, findings of pertinent studies based upon the literature search were identified. Data from the articles that were reviewed were described based upon the kind of research methodologies employed for factors impacting and inquiry on PM in IT projects by Middle East government entities. Inquiry methods identified from the reviewed articles included focus groups, questionnaires, and mixed methods. It was observed that PMMs in the Middle East region are largely focused on investigating present states or levels of their use in the nation of study, thus the predominance of the positivist research methodology technique. Out of the 33 articles that were accepted to fall within this study’s inclusion criteria, 23 articles employed quantitative research methodologies, 5 employed qualitative research techniques, 5 employed the mixed study technique, and the remaining 10 were either review papers or conference discussion papers.

The findings of the survey by Terlizzi et al. (2016) and Pace (2019 indicated that the internal control systems in public establishments largely affect the success of PM, stressing that irresponsibility of government along with financial complexities should be bettered when managing public projects, particularly the sensitive IT projects. McHugh and Hogan (2011) carried out a review of PMMs in Ireland by comparing existing PMMs in particular government organizations with generally accepted PMMs. The study found out that government entities often employ waterfall methodology, agile methodology, scrum methodology, kanban methodology, scrumban methodology, lean methodology, and critical path method. Baird and Riggins (2012) and Kononenko and Lutsenko (2018) also investigated PMMs and PM techniques through the use of questionnaire to gauge the degree of employment of PMMs and to identify benefits and challenges of PMMs.

All the above identified studies employed the positivist approach, concentrating upon the identification of existing PM processes and methodologies, hindrances to projects’ success and/or degrees of PM. It is arguable that these studies do not give a whole picture of PMM in the respective nations of study, but examined PM from a linear thinking strategy. Thus, identifying particular explanations and finding causativeness in the specific contexts is unclear (Hornstein, 2015; Marle et al., 2013). The studies also revealed that inappropriate organizational structures (Saltz et al., 2017; Sunder, 2016), competency of PM practitioners (Winch & Cha, 2020), PM knowledge and awareness (Zwikael & Meredith, 2018; Mok et al., 2015; Fallahnejad, 2013), sufficient human resources (Eweje et al., 2012), access to resource (Aziz & Abdel-Hakam, 2016), and senior government officials support (Špundak, 2014) were among the factors that impacted PMMs in government entities’ projects.

PM Success Factors and Criteria

Regarding project success criteria, eleven were research articles, eight were literature reviews, and the rest were no-perspective articles. All the articles discuss PM success, either explicitly or implicitly, more extra intricate than PM success, taking into consideration criteria other than cost, time, and quality in their definition of success. 

Whereas project success is gauged by the achievement of objectives and production of the expected outcomes and outputs, PM success is perceived as a good performance upon the traditional time, quality, and cost measures, being simpler and easier to gauge (Saltz et al., 2017; Winch & Cha, 2020). According to Marcelino-Sádaba et al. (2014), PM success can result in a project’s success, yet the reverse of the statement is untrue, that is, it is justified that admit that PM failure can result in project failure, save for fortuitous cases, yet projects may fail notwithstanding successful PM. 

From the government projects that were considered in the various studies, it was noted that project success depends upon clients, stakeholders, and teams’ perceptions (Mok et al., 2015; Zwikael & Meredith, 2018). Nonetheless, Aziz and Abdel-Hakam (2016), Carvalho et al., 2015), and McCaskell et al. (2019) contended that alongside the perceptions, the kind PMM employed in a project significantly influences the success of a project. Goodison et al. (2019) further identified the following principal criteria to gauge the success of a project: efficiency in project performance, technical performance, management and organizational outputs (including customer satisfaction), project completion, personal growth, business performance, technical innovation, the PMM employed, and the possibility of manufacturing.

Adam (2019) discussed the correlation between customer satisfaction and project success and established that projects effects ought to be gauged in different periods. Nonetheless, the model advanced by Winch and Cha (2020) provided 4 time-reliant dimensions to evaluate a project’s success: project efficiency; impact of the project on customers (meeting functional requirements, performance measures, customer satisfaction, and real needs), direct and business success, and preparing for the future. Additionally, Zwikael and Meredith (2018) stressed the effectiveness and efficiency in evaluating project success.

Grushka-Cockayne et al. (2015) buttressed the perception methodology of project success by stressing the significance of the worth of reading organizations’ power structures, that is, those that are able to influence the worldwide perception of the success of a project. Other authors, like Goodison et al. (2019), Svejvig and Andersen (2015), and Joslin and Müller (2015), associated project success with the contributions of a government project to citizens of that country and the long- and short-term objectives of the project. McCaskell et al. (2019) concentrated upon project outcomes’ accomplishment concerning project strategic goals, like the project’s viability as commercial entity, critiquing the old-fashioned perception of PM fostered in PMBOK by reducing the focus of PM to the implementation of activities and processes.

Additionally, Adam (2019) contended that the traditional PMMs still stress on assuring compliance with budget, scope, and time limitations, leaving behind certain solutions and consideration to tackle risks and uncertainty, like customer-centric thinking, continuous improvement, information sharing, knowledge generation, and reflective learning concerning experiences. Abdulla and Al-Hashimi (2019) introduced a far reaching methodology of assessing the success of a project:  (i) achievement of time, cost, and scope goals – approximates provided for the triangle of virtue at a project’s end; meeting sponsor and customer expectations; and achievement of projects’ strategic goals, which according to the study can only be realized when the right PMM is employed.

Conclusion

This present study reviewed existing literature and publications on factors that influence projects and PMs’ success in government entities of Middle East countries. Evidently, the SLR reveals that in addition to the usual criteria of quality, cost, and time as a factors that should be employed when assessing a project’s success, recent studies have demonstrated that the employment of PMMs is very crucial to influence the success of projects since they influence the quality, cost, and time of a project. Similarly, the employment of PMMs ensures that stakeholders and customers’ needs and expectations are satisfied.

CONCLUSION

The last century of innovation and research has not merely introduced and provided definitions into the project concept, but it has equally forged a unique discipline of PM in the global culture. From PM’s forefathers to this moment, the filed has significantly and steadily developed and even generated PMMs to assist organizations employ the best methodologies for embarking upon projects in their industries and businesses.  PMMs have been employed globally and global associations, like PM institute have been developed for the particular purpose of assisting PM experts grow their individual knowledge of PMMs and implement the most appropriate and best methodologies for PM within their companies and industries. Review the literature backing up PMMs, various PMMs have been highlighted.  When choosing a PMM, project teams should look at the benefits of a good PMM, and select a PMM that is suitable for their organization’s size, the need for the PMM’s software systems, and their clients’ needs.

Further, the PM research is populated by positivist research methodologies. Positivism is largely employed in PM literature to assess traditional PM views which stress techniques and methodologies employed to ensure projects’ success. The huge number of studies found on PMM in public entities of Middle East countries could be associated with manner in which there is an increased focus on PMMs in various projects presently across the world. However, a small number of articles could be found that specifically dealt with IT projects by government organizations in the Middle East region since focus has largely been given to other areas of PM. Based on the study’s findings, it is debatable that to better a project’s success, the right PMM should be selected for each and every government project, especially the delicate IT projects, to help tackle issues associated with organizations’ internal processes, PM knowledge, as well as issues associated with project managers and contractors. Presently, researchers focus more upon particular kinds of contexts and projects and analyze empirical associations between factors and success criteria since many theatrical models are currently existent. Among the principal players in the success (failure) of projects is the project manager. Each project’s success factor varies with the project’s stages – factors, like project mission/objectives, project planning, top organization’s management’s support, and project’s goals definition are important during the project planning stage; factors, like project team engagement, customer involvement, feedback and monitoring, problem-solving, and communication are important at the implementation stage and have a tactical facet owing to the fact that they are associated with resource utilization (financial technical, and human) for the realization of a project’s goals/objectives. The implication of this argument is that there is a need for a careful selection of the right PMM for a particular project. The findings of this SLR, however, are associated with various shortcomings. The use of only online published documents would usher in publication bias. Additionally, the paper is limited with regard to keywords/phrases and parameters that were employed during the selection of process. Thus, for future review, the criteria and search employed could be refined. To this end, it is clear that PMMs will only continue to grow within the worldwide marketplace. It is, therefore, imperative that PM experts have a thorough comprehension of their present processes, their clients’ needs, and the techniques that are able to help them in bettering their methodologies for present day’s competitive world.